A common retort from those of us with brothers, while
somewhat overstated, is “were it not for our last names, we’d have nothing in
common at all.” Brothers Gabi and Roni Kupper
no longer share even that characteristic; Gabi having selected a new, Hebrew name
when he moved to the “illegal” settlement of Ma’aleh Hermesh C. What they do share however is the experience
of growing up in Israel, post-independence. They are the lead characters in Assaf Gavron's magnificent novel The
Hilltop which I dare say will be a classic of Israeli literature.
It’s dangerous for an American gentile like me to posit vast
generalities on the State of Israel, or on the Jewish people, so I will try not
to do so. But it is important to clarify
upfront for readers of this review that Israel is as diverse of a place as one
will find on planet Earth.
We know, or we think we know about the divides -- Likud,
Labor, religious, secular, Hasidic, Tel Aviv vs everywhere else, the west bank,
the Old City, the Mediterranean, Haifa, the desert, the kibbutz’s and the
settlements -- but, we don’t. The genius
of Gavron’s book is that he has taken “all of the above” and turned them into
people, not factions, and by doing so has shown us their common denominator.
Gavron is not the first author to use brothers to provide
different viewpoints on life, but he’s truly mastered the genre with this book.
Roni and his younger brother Gabi grew up on a Kibbutz near
the Golan Heights, raised by an Uncle after the death of their parents in a car
accident. Though close as kids, they lead
decidedly different parallel lives as adults. Gabi eventually retreats into his religion,
and helps found a settlement; while Roni escapes to Tel Aviv, then New
York. The book traces their separate
lives, and their reunion at Ma’aleh Hermesh C.
There are numerous subplots to this book that are easily stand-alone
novels. At one time each of the brothers
lived in the U.S. – Gabi working for an Israel fundraising organization, and
Roni as an active participant in the “Hummus Forum” (a social networking group
of Israelis working on Wall Street). It
is Roni’s riches to rags story during the 2008 financial meltdown that lands
him on Gabi’s couch in a trailer at the settlement. There they rehash their lives, their
relationships, while living through the current political drama of the
settlements issue.
The early chapter on the “status” of the settlement of Ma’aleh
Hermesh C is one of the most instructive -- and sadly hysterically funny -- episodes
in the book, written as a commentary on the country’s legendary and insane bureaucracy.
The brothers’ lives intersect with dozens of others to
provide a panoramic insight to all things Israel. The only position the author takes is that
all of them have a belief system that is both situational and personal. To quote a biblical passage used frequently in the
book:“though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the death, I will fear
no evil for Thou art always with me.” We
are all walking through that valley; no one’s journey is the same, no one's journey is superior to any other.
I cannot complement Gavron’s writing enough, his wording,
and the structure of the book are near perfect. He seamlessly mixes the philosophy of
Rabbi Reb Nachman of Breslov, the rigors of child rearing, running a tavern in
Tel Aviv called “Bar BaraBush” named after American First Lady Barbara Bush, the
shenanigans of Wall Street, and an online world of avators called Revival: The
Second Life (that is engaged in religious warfare, some petty, some catastrophic).
An example of Gavron’s prose:
They reached the entrance to the cave, one of several large caves in the side of the mountain that had served as hideouts for the Maccabees and Romans, for monks and bandits, for shepherds and commando unit fighters and Crusaders; also for foxes, and for porcupines, and for leopards and snakes – for any living creature that passed through that desert at some point in time.
